Throughout her testimony, Swift insisted on placing all responsibility on the man who allegedly groped her, refusing to be redirected. Here are some quotes from the testimony in question.

•When [David] Mueller’s lawyer suggested that Swift should be critical of her bodyguard for failing to protect her from being groped: “I'm critical of your client sticking his hand under my skirt and grabbing my ass."

• When asked for her reaction on learning that Mueller was fired: "I'm not going to allow you or your client to make me feel in any way that this is my fault, because it isn't. … I am being blamed for the unfortunate events of his life that are a product of his decisions and not mine.”

• When Mueller’s lawyer suggested that if she was so traumatized by the incident, she could have ended the meet-and-greet: “And your client could have taken a normal photo with me."

• Responding to Mueller’s description of her as “cold:” “Which is a new one for me, but I have an uncanny ability to elicit new criticism.”

• And in conclusion: "Gabe [Mueller’s attorney], this is a photo of him with his hand up my skirt — with his hand on my ass. You can ask me a million questions — I'm never going to say anything different. I never have said anything different."

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Mueller claims that he recorded a two-hour phone call with KYGO the day after he was informed about Swift’s allegations. He says had a copy of the audio file on his laptop and on an external hard drive, and possibly his cell phone as well — but he spilled coffee on and then lost the laptop, the external hard drive just stopped working, and he threw out the cell phone.

Is there really a trial about a guy grabbing a girl's ass once? I have never and would never do it, and she had every right to slap him and never have anything to do him or his people again, but a trial? Somebody has a very high opinion of their ass. What are the damages?

I always thought Taylor Swift was hot. This makes her even hotter. Smart and tough, that's smokin hot.

Hot enough to make me want to grab her ass.

Which I wouldn't do, of course.

She reminds me of my hot blond wife who is also very smart and tough, like Taylor Swift. And who is, not incidentally, 100 percent in Taylor's corner on this. My hot blond wife has often been groped in the course of her merry journey through life. She froths with anger when she contemplates that guy who groped Taylor. She talks as though she'd like to crucify him. Which I find very hot.

Yes, I'm old enough to be Taylor's grandfather. But hot is hot, no matter what the age.

Sorry, I never was good at doing my homework. What's even worse is that in seeing the headlines for this story all week and never reading about it, I kept thinking "Mueller" was special council Robert Mueller, and wondering what Swift had to do with it. I should stick to porn where the names don't matter so much.

I just imagined that Trump was accused of colluding with the Russians to have a guy grab Swift's ass. C'mon, it's not impossible. Trump is that crazy, and Swift is probably a Democrat, and we know how much Putin hates Democrats. It still might be the real truth behind all this, and we should have a Special Prosecutor to investigate that.

Let's stop and think about what's the most important thing we learned from this. I'm going to say that it's Tay Tay either wears a thong or goes commando - "He did not touch my rib, he did not touch my hand, he grabbed my bare ass."

Mary Beth said..."Let's stop and think about what's the most important thing we learned from this. I'm going to say that it's Tay Tay either wears a thong or goes commando - "He did not touch my rib, he did not touch my hand, he grabbed my bare ass."

It has been seventeen days since I last grabbed a woman's ass without her permission. I won't lie: it's been hard. I see them everywhere -- women's asses, just begging to be grabbed. Asses in sundresses, asses in booty shorts, asses in tight jeans, asses in yoga pants: women just aren't afraid anymore to make a Statement with their ass...

Now, I'm not blaming women for my addiction: I own it. It is a sickness. Sometimes the urge to cup a woman's ass with my hand is practically overwhelming. Don't get me wrong: I am not a pervert. It's not like I try to touch their assholes with my fingers or anything, I keep it straight to the buttocks. But I may have accidentally fingered an asshole or two, and for that I am very sorry...

One of the most difficult things is, now when I'm near a woman, I don't know where to put my hands. Because women always seem to position their asses near my hands. Again: I'm not blaming the women -- I don't think they are aware that they are doing it, it's probably just a biological thing where they want to put their asses near men's hands, like, for survival of the species or something...

I've noticed that now that I am not grabbing women's asses I am drinking and smoking WAY too much. That's okay, though: One Day at a Time. You have to solve one problem before you can solve another, and my biggest problem is grabbing women's asses, not drinking and smoking...

God, I hope it gets easier, you know? Like, I was on the bus to this meeting and there was a woman standing by where I was seated, and her ass was RIGHT IN MY FACE. And it was a very nice ass. A VERY nice ass, and a clingy dress, that gently jostled with the movements of the bus. The urge to touch it was excruciating, but I did it: I kept from touching that magnificent ass, and when I got off of the bus I smoked three cigarettes to calm my nerves...

Sometimes I think that by notting touching women's asses I am denying my True Self, but the Devil is tricky that way. The Devil lurks in many a woman's ass, and I cannot give in. Today is Day Seventeen, and -- God willing -- if I make it through tomorrow without touching a woman's ass it will be Day Eighteen. My name is David, and I am an Ass Addict...

It has been twenty-four days since I last grabbed a woman's ass without her permission. I'd love to say it's getting easier, but it is not...

One of the things I have noticed since I have stopped grabbing women's asses: just how many women don't bend their knees when they reach down to pick up something. How can they not know what this does to men like me? How can they not know that their ass straight up and proud in the air is nearly impossible to resist...?

Now, I am not blaming women for my problem. It is my sickness: I own it. But -- damn -- women shouldn't make it so difficult to ignore their asses. There is a girl at the gym I go to, and when she runs on the treadmill I am practically hypnotized by her ass as her ponytail swishes back-and-forth with her stride...

And I know SHE knows she has a fine ass: she has obvious Ass Pride. But I guess I am supposed to pretend that I don't notice these things. Women put their asses right in our faces and we have to pretend to not look at them, much less touch them. Again: I am not blaming women, there is obviously a biological reason for this, but why am I expected to ignore MY biology..?

I mean, what if there is no such thing as Ass Addiction, and it is just genetic response? How am I supposed to win against THAT? But then I realize that mind-tricks like this are a representation of the Evil in the world, so I resort to smoking, drinking, and obsessively washing my hands until the skin is raw...

For me this case is a no-brainer - just look at the picture. What the f*** was his hand doing down below her waist if not fondling her butt? And look at her face - the grimace/smile, the professional determination to tough it out and not make a scene. Her airtight testimony combined with his failure to explain what his hand was doing down below her waist were just the icing on the cake. Mueller should have walked away from this happy that his feel only cost him his job and his reputation and didn't result in a criminal charge of molestation.

David Baker must be using sarcasm that is on a different level than I can comprehend. This guy was furniture to Taylor Swift. She could not possibly have cared enough about him to "have it in for him."

From what I can glean about Taylor Swift she is extremely talented vocally, she is a tough-as-nails business women who kicked Apple's butt when they tried to force her to give her music away, and has played Apple and Spotify off against each other to her benefit.

Mueller's lucky to have gotten off as lightly as he has. The essence of it all is that she is a powerful young woman and seems very easily ably to take care of herself without any whining about safe spaces.

People trying to make sense of this story keep forgetting: Taylor Swift might be the most desired woman in the world. Like out of the 7 1/2 billion or whatever we're up to now, it is at least arguable that she is number 1. I'd like to see who people think is, if she isn't. Without doubt she is top 5, which out of 7 billion is no more than a rounding error.

Socially, she's basically the Head Cheerleader of the World. Given men's evolutionary drive to mate with the highest level mate they can get, well, you can't get higher than Number 1 out of 7 billion. It isn't an excuse, because she encounters hundreds of men a day who manage not to brute force her, because they have morals and/or respect for the law or at least fear of it. But it is an explanation: dude went crazy. He was like Augustus Gloop in the garden of Willy Wonka's. No matter what he did or will do with the rest of his life, he felt up the number 1 woman in the entire world. And that's something. (Especially when others' claim to fame is shooting up movie theaters, etc, ie, really desperate stuff)

So she wins the suit and a token $1 in punitive (or is that actual?) damages.

And the losing party pays all the winner's legal expenses.

It's like she asked her attorneys "What would you liike for Christmas?" And they said a high-profile lawsuit where we can roll up a million dollars in billings, get our faces on national TV, humiliate a sleazeball and have our names in the national press for a week.

@tradguy says: "Few women have that perfect ass for grabbing . A perfect 10 has a baby's butt shape and strong legs. The new Queen of England in waiting has one."De gustibus and all that, but Camilla's 70 years old. If however you DO grab her ass after Charles ascends to the throne, I think you're more likely to be beheaded than sued for a dollar.

"Mueller can continue with his tortious inference claims against Swift’s mother Andrea Swift, and Swift’s radio promotions manager Frank Bell. Mueller’s 2015 lawsuit claims Andrea Swift and Bell pressured Lincoln Financial Media to fire Mueller by telling his boss that the station’s relationship with Taylor would be “gravely impacted” if something was not done about Mueller."

Also still in the case, Swift’s counterclaims against Mueller – including claims of sexual assault and battery.

These claims do not sound like they would allow for attorney's fees. And with Swift suing for just a dollar in actual damages, the most in punitives she could get is single digits.

Kevin said: Given men's evolutionary drive to mate with the highest level mate they can get...

Actually, Kevin, that's a woman's evolutionary drive.

A man's evolutionary drive is to mate with as many women as he can who are alive and breathing, including the fat ones and the ugly ones.

Women want high status mates because a successful mating (i.e. results in pregnancy) will take them out of the mating game for nine months and then leave them needing someone to provide for them and their new child for some period of time after that. For a man, a successful mating takes him out of the mating game for 10-15 minutes, and in fact continuing to mate with the woman he impregnated over the next nine months is an utter waste of time from an evolutionary perspective.

I almost suspect you're a woman pretending to be a man given how badly you got this wrong.

Still, agree that Taylor Swift is nice looking and also breathing and alive, so most men would do her. She's a bit on the skinny side though and I'm guessing that Mueller didn't actually get much of a handful when he decided to play grab-ass.

Only a bigoted and sexist site like Vox would write something so stupid. It would only occur to them that you didn't learn as a child this type of behavior is wrong. Sad how hateful and ignorant they are.

"From what I can glean about Taylor Swift she is extremely talented vocally, she is a tough-as-nails business women who kicked Apple's butt when they tried to force her to give her music away, and has played Apple and Spotify off against each other to her benefit."

Super rich talented beautiful chick who grew up in an affluent family.

White Privilege all the way. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

@readering, you haven't heard of Reynolds v Pegler? Famous case. Journalist Quentin Reynolds won only $1 from conservative columnist Westbrook Pegler in actual damages, but $175,000 in punitive damages. Case was back in the 1950s, so in today's dollars the punitive damages should work out to be well north of a million.

The doctor says they claim to have lost the sample. Outside of the smell of my urine I am utter asymptomatic for anything. No fever, no weakness or fatigue, no symptoms indicative of type 2 diabetes, no pain, nothing. He had changed my blood pressure meds and perhaps that's the source.

So Mueller goes down in flames in his trial. One fact I hadn't known: Mueller secretly recorded a work discussion of the incident but then spilled coffee on his computer so that the recording could not be retrieved. Fishy.

(Big Mike, re punitives, since your case (dating before I was born) the courts have ruled that in fairness there has to be a relationship between actual and punitive damages, so jury award of a Lincoln in actuals would limit punitives to no more than a Hamilton.)